


Football Day

by AyeletSita



Series: The Politics of Being a Demigod [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M, Gen, Unreliable Narrator
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-10
Updated: 2019-08-10
Packaged: 2020-08-14 11:55:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20191867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AyeletSita/pseuds/AyeletSita
Summary: It was important to remember the happy days. When you're a worn soldier grieving the death of your comrades, when you're an old general with the weight of so many children's lives on your shoulder, when you're tired and lonely and lost in eternal darkness, you need to remember the happy times.Percy reminded himself of that every time he told it to Annabeth.





	Football Day

**Author's Note:**

> So... It's been three years since I posted New Wand and moved right up into the next bit that was supposed to be about 6 chapters long and take place suring Percy's seventh year. It was already halfway done! As you can see, that didn't happen. I worked on many bits in this universe but it was for me than anything publishable. I didn't really touche it for a while, I hadn't been writing much since I finished high school, but then suddenly, yesterday I found myself going back to a partially written bit of Percy and Annabeth in this verse. It's not a traditional story and as usual, it's a bit hard to understand as you'll soon see, but I actually quite like it. Anyway, I hope someone who read the previous bits is still around to read this, enjoy.  
Just some last minute warnings, there are references to panic attacks and CST (combat stress disorder, the thing that turns into PTSD if not treated) and it's refered to by terms like "insane", it's not meant to insult anyone it's mostly just based on what the characters think of themselves.

_ It was important to remember the happy days. When you're a worn soldier grieving the death of your comrades, when you're an old general with the weight of so many children's lives on your shoulder, when you're tired and lonely and lost in eternal darkness, you need to remember the happy times. _

_ Percy reminded himself of that every time he told it to Annabeth. _

_ "Focus on the good memories," he told her, words not belonging to him sleeping from his mouth, "living is no different than producing a patrons. Just focus of the good bits. _

_ "Think about the day you met Luke and Thalia, think about the way they laughed, the way they smiled. Think about the exact shade of their eyes, about the curve of their smile. _

_ "Think about your books, about your sketches, and the buildings you dream to build. Tell me about them, I'll listen, just don't stop thinking. _

_ "Think about Hogwarts, about the grass, the lake, think about your common room, warm and welcoming. Think about home." _

_ And when Annabeth whispered that she can't and Percy felt her drifting through his fingers he started talking himself. It wasn't easy to focus on the good things when your own body was one big monument for the dead. Percy tried anyway. _

It was a Saturday  _ he told Annabeth. _ Second year. Grover and I sat outside and struggled with Charms homework, you know how we can be. It was a warm day, probably the beginning of the year, before winter begun, or maybe it was in the end, I'm not sure.

_ "It doesn't matter," she reassured him, "just continue." So he did. _

It was warm, but not too hot, a great day, and Charms was boring and I just needed to do something else. I tried to focus, I really did. Grover hated it when we didn't do our homework in time, the poor boy, he always felt so nervous about angering the teachers but I just couldn't help it.

"C'mon, man," I told Grover, "I need to stretch my legs." You should've seen him, Annabeth, the way he looked at me.

"I'm not the best at leg stretching, Percy," he said and I knew he was right. Still, I was restless so I looked around. There were a lot of kids outside but most of them were older, I was about to lose it when I spotted Charlie and Herons sitting some feet away from us.

_ "Let me guess," Annabeth cut in, "you went and harassed the poor boys who were just trying to study." _

_ "I did not!" Percy mock protested. Annabeth almost smile and he called it a victory. _

They weren't doing much so when I approached them and said: "let's play soccer" they immediately agreed.

_ "Did they now?" Asked Annabeth slyly. _

_ "Well… They may have been more hesitant, and had no idea what soccer was, but I got them in the end." _

_ "Of course you did," she said fondly. _

"We need another person, though," I told them once we established the game requires two teams. That's how we got Travis. Herons was about to throw a fit, you know how Gryffindors can be, but after we assured him they won't be in the same team, he gave in.

We made our way to a more leveled ground and we marked the gates with our bags. Charlie complained about getting his dirty, I remember, and Herons teased him about being vain.

_ "You sure about that?" Asked Annabeth with a raised eyebrow. _

_ "Of course I am!" Answered Percy confidently. "Now hush, you're interrupting the story." _

All of them, idiot purebloods that they were, didn't know the rules so I had to explain them.

_ "Toby is a half blood, Percy," pointed Annabeth out. Percy ignored her. _

"The goal," I told them, "is to put the ball in the gate. Each team has a, err, keeper, like in Quidditch, yes?"

_ "I'm sure Weasley got that," commented Annabeth wryly. Percy glared at her good naturally. He tried not to notice how bad she looked, the scars, the marks of exhaustion and worse of all, the way her body was slightly transparent. After all, they were trying to think positive now and admitting that none of this was real wasn't about to help. _

"The keeper keeps the ball out, he's the only one who can touch the ball with his hands. The other players can only kick it," I continued to explain. There are more rules than it to Soccer, of course.

_ "Football, and I know." _

But there was no point saying it back then.

"Percy," said Travis when I finished up.

"Yes?" I replied.

"Didn't you say you need a ball for this?" That smartass bastard. All three of them weren't that excited, Charlie thought that any game that wasn't Quidditch was a waste of time and I never liked Herons for a reason.

_ "And that reason is him being friends with Clarisse," pointed Annabeth out. _

_ "Maybe," admitted Percy, "but can you blame me?" _

_ "Never," she said in a dramatic voice before chuckling quietly. _

We thought about using a Quaffle but it's practically impossible to get one not for a Quidditch training. As usual, Grover saved the day.

_ "Did you hear that?" Asked Annabeth suddenly. _

_ "Hear what?" He replied dumbly. There wasn't much to hear down there. _

_ "They're here," she declared. _

_ The story was forgotten for a while. _

**~~~**

_ It was one day-night-moment, time had no meaning in that dimension, when Annabeth struggled to breath that Percy was reminded of the memory. Percy couldn't close his eyes, Annabeth couldn't breath and they only had few moments of break before the battle will begin again. _

_ "I started telling you… You remember?" He asked as the witch held onto his hand and breathed heavily. She didn't answer, she couldn't. Annabeth with her silky tongue and reply for everything couldn't get enough air into her lungs to mutter a word. They didn't call it a panic attack, just like they didn't call Percy insane or their condition hopeless. Some things were better not talk about. Instead, Percy told her about that sunny day when four young boys played soccer on Hogwarts' grounds. _

I transfigured Grover’s apple into a ball, it wasn't easy, my first three tries were ridicules, I'm sure you can imagine, but I managed in the end. It was a ball, it wasn't exactly right but you could kick it properly so who cared. It was bright red, you know, and you could hear the apple's seeds rattle inside of it.

_ Percy fell silence for a second after that as they both knew it to be a lie. Percy was better than Annabeth in remembering people and maybe he really did remember the rattling ball but colors was something he lost first. Many times he asked Annabeth: "What's your eye color?" Annabeth didn't get it. _

_ "Grey," she answered distractedly. Percy shook his head, unhappy. _

_ "No, it was… It's something more, I remember." They didn't talk about it much and they weren't about to begin now so Percy continued the story. _

And finally, we played. Travis stuck me in the gate, which sucked. He and Charlie fought viciously for the ball and I had to stop it every second and clarify another rule, like it wasn't obvious. I mean, c'mon people, obviously you can't push someone to get the ball!

They got it in the end, though, and I bullied Travis into letting me out of the gate. I tried to make Grover into a referee but he sucked at it, too shy to yell at us when we pulled a dirty move. I think I used to be like that, too. Before Riley. I didn't know how to shout at people to shut up. My dad told me it was something you were born with, leadership skills, he called it. That's bullshit. You learn how to make people listen, you’re not born knowing what the right thing to say is. I learnt it because I had to and Grover never needed to. That's probably a good thing.

Anyway, that day went by, our homework weren't done, Charlie twisted his ankle (and got sadistic ideas for Quidditch practices for years to come), Herons complained about being tired for weeks and Travis got a new idea to obsess about. I didn't think it was a big deal back then, we just played soccer and had some fun. It's funny how life works, ha? You never think some things would be that important and suddenly they are.

Travis approached me again on a Tuesday.

_ "Percy, there is absolutely no way you remember which day that was," interfered Annabeth. She breathed almost normally now but Percy didn't mention it, she hated it when he pointed that out like it was an achievement. "Tons of normal people can breathe just fine, Percy," she pointed out icily. _

_ "Of course I do!" Protested the wizard good-naturally. He didn't smile, too busy pretending to be offended, but he felt some of the constant fear in his stomach evaporating. _

_ "Percy, I love you but you suck at remembering the days of the week, let alone a proper date," said Annabeth, she turned her gaze to him as she did, and then looked away. It was disconnecting to look at each other directly, it made it feel like they were ghosts. Maybe they were. _

_ "I always remember your birthday, and our anniversary and-" Started Percy to count. _

_ "Our anniversary  _ is  _ your birthday," cut Annabeth in, "and we have literally had none this far." _

_ "We celebrated our one month anniversary, three, five and nine months too!" Pointed Percy out. Annabeth rolled her eyes and let out a slight smile. _

_ "Just continue your story, Seaweed Brain and we'll pretend you actually know what you're talking about." She put her head on his chest as she spoke. It was one of their favorite positions, they didn't have to actually look at each other yet they could feel the slight warmth each of them radiated. _

_ "I object that statement but since you obviously desperately want to know what happened I'll continue. You see, I'm nice like that," rumbled Percy. Annabeth chuckled but didn't retorted. _

So when Travis approached me again, it was a Tuesday, we were having Charms together and as I prepared to leave he blocked my way.

"I've got us a Quaffle, Jackson," he said. I blinked at him for a second as he let out other classmates to pass by. I shot him a confused glance.

"I think he's talking about football, Perce," suggested Grover. Travis looked at me as if that was supposed to be obvious.

"You wanna play again?" I asked, surprised. He shrugged.

"Why not? It was fun and not all of us are fans of heights, am I right?" He said it in this sly kind of way that was so Slytherin, like he didn't know full well that heights were one of a Poseidon's worst places to be.

"Okay," I agreed, "we can play."

"Great! Let's go!" He declared. I stared at him for a second.

"Right now?" I asked. The snake shrugged once again.

"You've got something better to do?" I didn't, so we went outside to play soccer once again.

_ "I love it when you say soccer," commented Annabeth quietly. _

_ "I thought you hated my Americanness?" Asked Percy, amused. _

_ "It's kind of cute," she admitted, "soccer, and elevators, it's very you." _

_ "I love you," was Percy's reply. _

_ "Me too," whispered Annabeth. She had said "I love you" before but hadn't since they fell. Annabeth was always more careful with her actions, with her words and with her emotions and there was only so much she could bring herself to reveal – to feel – in a place and situation such as this. _

_ "I know," murmured Percy because he knew all of these about her and loved her all the same. He left the thought after that, not wanting to sink in thoughts about her childhood, which would lead to thought about his own, which would only give him grief as the details evaded him. _

_ They fell asleep like that and the story was left alone for a while. _

**~~~**

_ This time, it was his turn to lose his sense. Looking back, he could tell how stupid and weak he was but as it happened… He really was sure Annabeth was gone and monsters were storming him. Annabeth told him he looked terrifying from the outside, wild and dangerous, willing to strike anyone who came close and he didn’t seem to hear her or see her and she was so scared… _

_ “Football Day!” She called out once her pleas for help, calling out his name and trying to remind him of his mother failed. “You were telling me about Football Day, remember?” _

_ And for some reason, it worked. _

_ “Football Day?” He mumbled, his grip on his sword loosening as his enemies faded from his sight. _

_ “Yes! Football Day, you remember, Percy? It was Travis’ idea,” Annabeth tried to help along. _

_ “No, that’s not…” He could see her again, feel her hand on his shoulder. He didn’t stop to process that, knowing it will all fade away if he stared directly at it. _

It was actually Charlie’s idea. We’ve been playing together for a while then, just before dinner or when a class was cancelled. Mostly it was the three of us - me, Charlie and Travis, with someone else being forced into the fourth position. At least, until Charlie happened. You know these Gryffindors, awful gossips, and before I know it I’ve got half the Gryffindors over for the game.

_ “Yeah, gossip, not like you begged for every player because it became ‘dull when you all knew each other’s moves’,” Annabeth teased carefully, scared to tip Percy back to his delusional state and yet knowing that without her feedback the story will escape his grasp, and then she would be back to looking helplessly as Percy was losing himself. _

_ “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” said Percy in an exaggerated innocent tone, slowly pulling her closer until their limbs were wrapped around each other and his mouth laid just next to her right ear. _

The thing was, it was different people every time and I got tired of explaining the rules every time from the beginning. So Charlie offered a solution.

_ “Football Day,” guessed Annabeth. _

_ “Football Day,” confirmed Percy. _

It went something like this: “hey, Percy, what do you say about having our soccer match on certain times and then everything will be in order and shit?”

_ “Twelve-year-old Charlie Weasley did not say ‘shit’,” Protested Annabeth. “The guy was terrified of his mum! He barely dared to call someone a git!” _

_ “Okay so maybe I paraphrased, so what? You’re missing the point!” _

It was a solid enough idea, but it’s always easier said than done. First, there was the time thing. We met up all over the place not because we are messy -  _ “Not that you aren’t,” she chimed in.  _ \- But because we were from three different houses, all with different timetables and also had two Quidditch schedules to consider. Wait, no, we were just second years then. Only Charlie was on a team. Just one Quidditch team to consider but damn if it didn’t got worse over time.

We settled eventually on 5pm on Wednesday-

_ “You just pulled this out of your ass, didn’t you?” Annabeth snickered. _

_ “Heir Athena! That is no way for a future lady to speak!” He mock-scolded her in a pathetic imitation of her mother. Annabeth laughed, or as closed as she managed and almost looked up to his face, before remembering better.  _

_ “My apologies, please do continue your fascinating tale,” she forced in an upbeat voice, hoping Percy didn’t notice how hard he was shaking. _

So 5pm Thursday it was.

_ “You said Wednesday,” she corrected. _

_ “And now I say Thursday, now hush.” _

But where? We never stuck to the same place because different places were empty on different times. I liked playing by the lake but for some reason the rest didn’t.

“Not everyone stay dry after they jump in the water to retrieve the ball,” Grover told me, which was fair, except for how that’s totally not a difficult spell and you can be a none-Poseidon and still manage just fine.

You must be wondering now why I wouldn’t just go get the ball every time it was kicked into the lake accidently, but we had a rule about that. We played with a Quaffle, so it’s not like we could summon it, and it didn’t always went into the lake. Sometimes we played up that hill - you know the one, just left of the western entrance - and the ball would roll all the way down and it just sucked to go all the way down - and then all the way up - just to retrieve it. So, the rule was, whoever kicked it would bring it. Travis, Sly bastard that he is tried to argue that it should be the last one touching the ball, you know, like in the game rules about which team get the ball later, but that was just bullshit. What if you just tried to stop it from getting away after it already exited the field? This wasn’t about technical issues, it’s about who actually kick the ball there!

Anyway, the guys - and Andrea, she was pretty much our only regular girl back then - vetoed the space by the lake. Everyone hated that place on the hill and that one time we played next to Hagrid’s garden his dog stole the ball. 

Finally, we took over the space next to the old cedar tree, which also happened to be some Ravenclaw girls favorite studying spot.

_ “Oh, Merlin, I remember, Mia looked ready to skin you alive,” Annabeth chimed in at last. _

_ “And you let that chimera take a bite out of me the next week to punish me,” added Percy. _

_ “I did not!” Protested Annabeth automatically despite drawing blank when attempting to remember the incident. She felt her breath catch in her throat, and Percy must’ve felt it too, because she felt him tense against her. Her hand locked on his ragged hair. “It was your fault, you were so slow back then,” she managed to blurt. Percy’s body went limp against her. _

_ “Yeah…” He mumbled, his lips making their way down from her ear, to her cheek, and to her mouth. “We all were,” he breathed and the rest of the story was lost between their tongues. _

**~~~**

_ Percy continued the story without prompting and it took Annabeth a second to understand what he was talking about. _

We started by posting ads in our common rooms - new soccer team, all houses invited, I think we put in something about prizes there too. God know what we were thinking as between the three of us we only had three sickles Travis stole from someone.

First few times, it was just the same people. We continued working on writing down the rules properly and bargaining with Hooch to permanently have a Quaffle so we won’t have to send Travis for one every time anew, but we all kind of thought it was going to end there.

I started to work on building actual gates, I think I spent more time in the library to learn how to transfigure them than I did for anything else at that point. They were wonky, and flew over when the wind was too strong, but damn if I wasn’t proud of them.

It was at the third or fourth meet-up that something changed. Suddenly, we didn’t struggle to get six people along but had over ten people for every match. Tonx helped me with the gates so at least they were equal sizes - Nate wouldn’t shut up about how unfair it was if they weren’t exactly the same. We ended up destroying one of them, you know, and just duplicating the other in. That kind of magic can’t hold for long, not when a bunch of pre-teens were doing it, but it was pretty cool for awhile and those gates were gone by the next year anyway - but I’m getting ahead.

We started forming permanent teams.

“Well, you, me and Weasley started it so it only makes sense that we’d be the captains,” said Travis when it was brought up.

“That’s three people, genius, we’ve only got two teams.” I remember Brian telling him, rolling his eyes. It sometimes seemed like that’s the only expression that dude had. You’d think that someone literally named “Wince” would, you know, wince. But no. Brian only ever rolled his eyes. Slytherins for you.

_ “I liked Brian,” she commented suddenly. “We did a paper together once, he didn’t completely waste my time.” _

_ “Why did you stop?” Percy asked. _

_ “Stopped what?” Annabeth replied, confused. _

_ “Liking him. You said, you liked Brian, why did you stop?” He clarified. _

_ ‘Because I’m dead,’ she thought, ‘and dead people don’t like anyone.’ She shrugged. _

Anyway… I decided to be the mature adult and let the two idiots be captains, which obviously mean the teams were basically Gryffindor vs. Slytherin with us lowly Hufflepuff split between them depending on how they felt like.

For a while, it was good, we had fun and more and more people joined. When we hit the twenty it turned out Travis wasn’t that dumb after all and we started having three teams so everyone will get a chance to play. Then, of course, the year ended and when we came back we found our field an official “no-football” zone. And you destroyed my gates!

_ Annabeth snickered. “That was Mia, I told you she was pissed off. Anyway, you missed a bit.” _

_ “What bit?” Asked Percy, a frown forming on his forehead. _

_ “The bit where Football Day became Football Day, instead of Soccer Day,” she reminded. _

_ “You are right, it’s a good story.” _

It was just when people started coming along. Up until then, no one there knew anything about soccer, so that was fair enough, but then came Jonathan.

Jonathan Stein was few people’s favorite person. For one, he was a muggleborn in Slytherin, and 90% of their bunch are racist assholes, but he was also a major dick. He came along because Travis threatened his entire dorm room that he would open a prank war if they didn’t and as everyone know:

_ “Never start a prank war with a Stoll,” the pair chorosed dutifully. _

So there was Jonathan, listening to me explaining the game rules and suddenly, he felt the need to interrupt.

“Wait, we’re playing football? Why didn’t you just say so!”

And from then on no one ever listen to me when I told them it was called Soccer.

_ “Alright, you can go back to crying about how we destroyed your gates now,” allowed Annabeth with a smirk. _

_ “Thanks,” said Percy, sarcasm dripping from his voice, and he would’ve, if a new hoard of monsters didn’t make itself known just about then. “Guess the story will have to wait,” he mumbled, already drawing out his sword. _

**~~~**

_ It was dangerous to start a sentence with “remember when” because so often, the other one didn’t. The darkness was so thick, so suffocating and the heat of the battle took over their thoughts, leaving no space for peaceful thoughts. (What was Annabeth’s eye color? It was grey, but it had… It had something in it and Percy couldn’t recall what it was). _

_ And yet, despite the risk, this conversation started with “remember when we fought over that stupid football field?” _

We returned from summer vacation to find out our gates, our marking, everything we put into it was gone and Professor McGonagall informed us we couldn’t take over a space on school’s grounds like that. We were so angry. Travis sneaked into the Ravenclaw common room - well, I see sneak but he just kind of walked in - and doused your friend’s Mia bed with a stinking potion. I still have no idea how he climbed the stairs to your room.

_ “I remember, I think… She was so angry. I think she slapped Travis? Right?” Asked Annabeth, not quite sure in the validity of the memory. _

They had a huge shouting fight in the great hall. Travis blames her for destroying our gates and Mia was pissed we took over the ground and Travis was two seconds away from hexing her to hell when his brother dragged him away. Of course, Connor later continued Travis’ work and turned all of Mia’s robes bright purple. He just didn’t want Travis in detention without him, I guess.

Anyway, nothing came out of all these fightings and in the meanwhile we once again had no permanent spot, no proper gates and it was generally a mess. I was close to giving up, not like I had more than enough on my plate as it was.

_ “It was when rumors of Hobgoblin started around London’s outskirts, wasn’t it?” _

_ “It was a bugbear. Three kids died before I got to it,” Percy recalled, instinctively looking down on his left forearm only to find it too translucent to read the names tattooed on it. Outside, he knew it by heart, but now the names just kept slipping away… There was an Elizabeth, he thought, and perhaps a Jacob? Or was it Jordan. He felt himself slipping away. _

_ “Percy! Percy! The football field, tell me about it, it was Professor Sprout, right?” Annabeth tried desperately but Percy was already gone. _

_ “Riley Young,” he murmured, “Riley Young.” Again and again. _

**~~~**

_ He started the story again without prompting. _

Professor Sprout knew about our situation with Football Day. She invited Charlie, Travis and me to her office to tell us she loved it, the house unity and sportsmanship and all that, and that she wanted to help.

_ Percy went silence for a moment as he recalled the moment. Professor Sprout had no proper office like McGonagall or Flitwick. She had her space in greenhouse number 1, a relatively clean corner with a desk to check exams at. They always received them covered by dirt. She never sat on one side of the table, a student on the other as they talked. It was always by some plant or other, her hands carefully tending to it as she spoke. Percy dropped Herbology after fifth year, he had no choice, he just didn’t have the time for an extra subject, but sometimes when demigod duties and homework became too much, he found himself visiting in one of the greenhouses with Grover and helping him with his practical assignments. There was something soothing in those moments Percy could only ever feel there and in the bottom of the lake. _

“We need a place, Professor,” Travis said, “someplace we won’t be kicked out of.”

“And it needs to be leveled ground, someplace where the ball can’t run away from us,” added Charlie.

And, well, Sprout was always my favorite for a reason. It was farther than we likes, but she created a road so it was easy time getting to it, and she made it Hogwarts’ official football field, which was probably the biggest help. Now no one could kick us out and if someone destroyed our stuff they would get in trouble.

_ “Which Mia did, and served her first ever detention for,” completed Annabeth with a chuckle.  _

Me and Tonks made new gates-

_ “Tonks and I,” corrected Annabeth automatically. _

_ “Shut up,” replied Percy with a crooked smile. _

-The guys marked the borders and we started having over twenty people there every week for the games again.

We had mini tournaments and team names, and team symbols and people made songs and I don’t know who it was but they made us a cup, for the winning team and it was the ugliest, not quite gold goblet you’ve ever seen but Charlie was willing to murder for it.

We never had much Ravenclaws ever, you being a batch of nerds, so it was usually just Connor from there. But we had tons of Gryffindors, even Baby Grace came a couple of times-

_ “You know he will punch you some day about calling him that,” interjected Annabeth. _

_ “He could try,” said Percy with a wink she couldn’t see. _

I brought over most of the Hufflepuffs at some point. Poor Frank really came to hate soccer, I think, the number of times he fell on his ass there and made a joke of himself. He got better, though, especially as goalie. Too big to let anything go by.

Nico came too, for a while. Then his sister told him something about it not being dignified for a Hades and, well, you know how he is. I wanted to punch her but… I don’t know, guess I realized it was more likely to start an Olympian war than to fix anything.

Tonks sucked at it all, but she loved it, even if she always says it got nothing on Quidditch.

Grover always came with me, despite never playing. He couldn’t, you know, but he was still there. I miss Grover.

“I know,” echoed Annabeth. “You’ll see him again soon.”

Football Day became the coolest day of the week.  _ Annabeth chuckled.  _ Every year I thought, maybe people will stop showing up, but they never did. I think… I think it showed us that we don’t really know what we want. Sure, everyone love Quidditch but so few could actually play, and only three matches a year, usually, and it all had to be so orderly and proper. I guess sometimes people just want to kick a ball in the mud, run around till you can’t breath and cheer for Slytherin and a Gryffindor in the same sentence.

I remember Grover telling me once, “you did good.” I guess we did.

_ And with that, the story had ended and it was, once again, just two teenagers alone in the abyss. _

**Author's Note:**

> Tartarus in this verse isn't a physical place, rather a curse that placed Percy and Annabeth's mind in it while their bodies are effectively in a coma. It's a dark curse that would basecally torture thm until they give up on fighting which would lead to them physically dying. Obviously, that doesn't happen. I didn't put dates here because Percy and Annabeth have no concept of time and it's technically probably only a couple of minutes between each bit of the story, and yet for them it's precived as weeks or even months. Their stay in Tartarus in general, however takes place starting from July 1st (as per canon of Mark of Athena) of the year 1990 (just before their seventh year) up to mid-October, just before New Wand takes place.  
I originally tried to write the story of how Percy accidently founded a Hogwarts soccer\football team properly, only to find out it was a rather dull one. It didn't really fit as a footnote in another story but I didn't want to drop it and then, when I started writing about Percy and Annabeth in Tartarus I suddenly found Percy telling it. It's far from accurate because his mind is kind of all over the place at the moment but I actually like it, it gave me freedom when it comes to both narration and accuracy. It's a weird piece overall, but I loved it and I hope you did too.  
If you'd like to comment and\or kudos I would be overjoyed, seeing the email telling me about either of them usually makes my day. You're also welcome to subscribe to the series, I will probably at some point post a new piece (although it might take three years again).


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